Herald: Mitt's a Failure

Who would have thought that the Boston Herald would have the perfect antidote to the $146,000, 24-page campaign booklet Mitt Romney had inserted in today's Globe. While I've not yet seen a copy of the insert, the Herald has splashed a picture of a dour Mitt holding one of the brochures with the headline "Poor Marks for Mitt". Inside they have a 'special report' slamming the Governor for his poor performance in his first two and a half years. Here's a sample:

As he weighs his prospects in the 2008 presidential race, the slick PR brochure paid for by Romney's campaign committee boasts of "the state's remarkable turnaround" and "reform efforts . . . taking root throughout state government." But the governor omits key facts:

• Residents fled Massachusetts at a rate of 75 per day during Romney's first full year as governor.

A net of nearly 28,000 people up and left the Bay State in 2003 for better prospects elsewhere.

• Unemployment is down under Romney, from 192,000 just before he took office, in December 2002, to 160,556 last month. But that doesn't mean jobs have risen. Non-farm payrolls in December 2002 were 3.42 million. Last month: 3.37 million.

The labor force has simply shrunk by about 800,000, or one sixth, during that time. Indeed, Massachusetts has lost a net 11,000 jobs since Romney took office.
[..]
Most ominous: The state's technology sector, once the envy of the nation, continues to lose ground. Information technology employment is down 12,700, or 13 percent, so far under Romney. During the same period, California's IT jobs have declined by just 1 percent.

Along with the article, the Herald also published a mock Report Card for the governor. While Mitt did manage to get some A's, they were in the subects of "Doing presidential politicking on the taxpayer's dime" and "Flip-flopping on abortion and dancing around gay marriage". The only A+ the Governor managed was in "Staying fit for the campaign trail".

Check out both articles. I'll probably have more on the brochure after I've managed to track down a hard copy of the Globe.